Salt – Sal – Salz – Sale

I thought it was fitting to begin this blog with a quick blurb about one of my favorite things in the world: salt.

I’m much more of a savory/salty kind of person versus a sweet one. (That goes for both food and personality.)

Here are my ponderings on salt:

Table salt: Use sea salt like this one because it is much finer than your traditional “table” salt. Sea salt has also gone through less processing than traditional because it’s literally the salt left behind after water has been evaporated.

Cooking salt: Kosher salt is the way to go because of its coarser grain. Because Kosher salt has craggly-looking grains, it’s easier to control how much you sprinkle on your goodies. Think about how many times you’ve grabbed the salt shaker and a) nothing came out or b) you built a Mt. Everest model on your mashed potatoes.

Baking salt: Traditional “table” salt (Morton’s) is just fine for this. Don’t use Kosher salt for this purpose – the grain size of the Kosher salt actually makes the measurements different. For example, one cup of traditional salt holds more salt grains than a cup of Kosher salt. It’s all in the size of your grain.

Fancy salt: For the fun finishes requiring something special (think Parker House rolls or salted caramel brownies), I use a flaky sea salt. Here’s a fun fancy one you could even add to your registry. I wish I had known we could’ve registered for food items. I’d have registered for a few bottles of Pinot.

What I’m watching: Since we’re talking about salt… and salt comes from the ocean… I thought it would be good to tie in some thoughts on our oceans.